All About Joyriders
In the beginning, there was no group, just a couple of riders who rode at 5am in the mornings to train for their triathlons. Amongst those who rode are Joyce, Refik, Jonathan and Bernard. That was mostly in 2003 and 2004. By the end of 2004, some riders went and some newer riders came. But we normally numbered about four riders total. And we used to start from Joyce's house near Longhouse then. And we took the East loop. People like Lenith, Nicholas, etc.
Then more people like Edward joined the group. And even more people. And more. We switched the route from East to West to cater for the growing west community and people who needed to get back to work and that was more convenient.
We moved from being an email group to a forum group by starting the Yahoo Group (http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/longhouse5am) in Jan 2006. Part of the reason for the move was to have a database of "In Case Of Emergency" contacts, but we've grown used to using it for the forum and other features already. At the same time we had our first "RED JERSEY" kindly sponsored by Joyce. So an "official" date for the start of the group can be considered as Jan 2006. By May 2007, we have 120 official members signed up with the forum.
The rides were reorganized into Tue Sprints, Wed Recovery/Hill, Thu Steady with Mon always a rest-day. Breakfast ride was started by Edmund and Carol and it became a regular riding programme. Due to the slower and non-hurried nature of the ride in the weekends, it was easier for newer riders to join us on Sundays. Turtle base paced rides were organized during off season to cater for those not wanting to Ninja early season. Steady paced rides on Thu allows faster speed riding without making all the rides feel like a race.
A second "BLUE JERSEY" was sponsored by Cunningham & Lindsey, compliments of Chris Panes.
In 2007, we started sprint points at safe sections of the rides. These are tabulated, together with keeping track of attendance for the rides. The domain joyriders.sg was registered in Apr 2007 and this website has been in development since. Our third "Sunrise Orange" jersey will be released in Jul 2007, with multiple sponsors and personal sponsors. Queries for orders should be directed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Key time lines
17 May 2003 - Malakoff Dataran trip with Tribob included Joyce, Bernard, Esther Tan, Sam Yang, Rebecca Peters. Joyce and Esther won first place for respective age-category. Sam Yang clocked fastest 60km ride 1:29 and won Men Relay category.
Jun 2003 - Explored Desaru via bumboat
27 Jul 2003 - First ride with Sembawang group
26 Oct 2003 - First trip to Bintan (Joyce, Bernard, Esther Tan)
15 Nov 2003 - Second trip to Bintan (Joyce, Bernard, Esther Tan, KK, Mac, Jeanette, etc)
26 Feb 2004 - Bernard's first ride with 5am group (Joyce, Refik, Jonathan already riding)
19 Aug 2004 - Great Langkawi Adventure (Team Polar - Adrian Mok, Joyce)
21 Nov 2004 - Desaru 193km ride
21 Jan 2005 - Belunkor, Sedili, Desaru trip with Bike & Blade group
4 Feb 2005 - Genting ride, watch Tour de Langkawi with Ascender.
5 Mar 2005 - Desaru 140km ride
2 May 2005 - Desaru 185km ride
5 Jun 2005 - Respeda Fraser Hill race (Chris Panes, Joyce, Bernard, etc)
Jun 2005 - Fantastic Four goes up Genting (Chris 'Columbus' Panes, Joyce, Benny, Bernard). Chris Panes broke rear deraileur. Gombak, Genting Sempah 105km ride with locals, ice kachang in Bentong.
21 Aug 2005 - JB-Kota Tinggi-Desaru 180km ride
18-20 Nov 2005 - Fantastic Four goes up Fraser. Chris 'Columbus' Panes became Scarface.
Jan 2006 - Joyce "Red jersey Joyriders" birthday ride.
Jan 2006 - Yahoo! Group forum for Longhouse5am started.
6 May 2006 - 36.1kmh (Adrian, Boat, Bernard) on East loop.
8 Jun 2006 - First Eric Flyover ride.
8 Jul 2006 - Chris Panes "Blue jersey" birthday ride.
19-20 Aug 2006 - The Pines Resort Fraser ride (Eric, Peter, Joyce, Edmund, Carol, Francis Quijano, Patrick Tan, Ching Leong, Bernard, Kit, Bao Ying)
16 Sep 2006 - Kota Tinggi 160km loop ride (JB-KT-JB)
17 Sep 2006 - First Joyriders event win (SACA Team Time Trial: Pang Jin, Stefano, Boat, Benny)
24 Sep 2006 - First Sunday Dim Sum Breakfast 58km ride.
27 Nov 2006 - Jeremy & FWNR started joining Sunday breakfast rides.
9-10 Feb 2007 - Double Genting ride, Tour de Langkawi.
18 May 2007 - First LCK ITT (lumba haram).
24 Mar 2007 - 36.1kmh (Adrian, Bernard) on West loop.
4 Apr 2007 - easy-to-remember domain name joyriders.sg is registered with Vooju.
6 May 2007 - Second LCK ITT (lumba haram).
1 Jun 2007 - 1st website launched.
16 April 2009 - Revamped website launched.
